What data does WhatsApp use? And for what purpose? According to Irish data protection officials, the Facebook affiliate has not made it transparent enough. The authority imposed a fine of 225 million euros.

Irish privacy lawyers impose record fine on WhatsApp Messenger service This is due to violations of the European General Data Protection Regulation. Due to the lack of transparency in the transfer of personal data, the Facebook affiliate had to pay 225 million euros, the DPC ruled. The Supervisory Authority also directed the Messenger service to change the data processing.

Irish privacy lawyers have never been fined so much before. Across Europe, fines can only be levied on Amazon by data protection officers in Luxembourg. The Luxembourg Authority fined the Internet group 746 million euros this summer.

The Authority recently took the lead again

Since Facebook’s European headquarters in Dublin, DPC is responsible for data protection issues. Since many other technology companies, such as Apple, Google, and Twitter, have their European headquarters in Ireland, the DPC has recently reiterated its implementation of the European General Data Protection Regulation.

Going into the 2018 inquiries into the fine data transfer against WhatsApp. In the same year, the General Data Protection Regulation was introduced in the EU.

“Small step in the right direction”

The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection described the decision as “a small step in the right direction.” “For now, many other open cases about WhatsApp in Ireland have finally been decided, so the steps for the unified implementation of data protection law in Europe will be faster and longer,” he told Reuters news agency.

Max Shrems, a data protection activist from Austria, also welcomed the decision. However, since 2018, the DPC has been receiving 10,000 complaints a year, and only now has it been fined heavily. In fact, the Irish only proposed a fine of 50 million euros, so Shrems. “Other European data protection authorities have forced you to increase the fine to 225 million.”

Even 22 225 million is still only 0.08 per cent of the Facebook group’s turnover, Shrems said. “The European General Data Protection Regulation imposes fines of up to four per cent on sales. This shows that the Irish Data Protection Authority is still extremely dysfunctional.”

WhatsApp described the sentence as completely inappropriate and declared an appeal. WhatsApp surprised Ireland by the authority’s decision, leaving only 77 77.5 million on the company’s balance sheet for possible fines.